Jake Gyllenhaal Almost Took Over as Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2

I grew up on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and although there have now been a few other renditions of Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire is the OG. However, after a reported back injury on the set of Seabiscuit back in 2003 before shooting for Spider-Man 2, Maguire almost didn’t go on to finish the trilogy.

Although there were rumors that Maguire’s back injury was actually a kind of negotiation tactic, Sony started looking for a replacement for the role. Several actors were approached for the role, including Jake Gyllenhaal. Starring as Mysterio/Quentin Beck in Marvel’s well-received Spider-Man: Far From Home earlier this year, Gyllenhaal was approached about replacing Maguire and become Sony’s new Spider-Man for Spider-Man 2. When asked about the matter, Gyllenhaal had this chivalrous response:

“I heard the same thing. The truth of the matter is, in the end, [Tobey Macguire] is Spider-Man. There are so many roles in my career where I was up against another actor, or there was something happened that possibly could’ve happened but didn’t happen but maybe it would have. Eventually my belief is when an actor’s played a character, particularly in a movie, the character’s theirs, and that’s that. But yeah there was talk, he hurt himself and there was talk. There was a slew of actiors [possibly up for the part], and I was one of them.”

Now that’s pretty honourable – what a cool guy. As we know, Maguire recovered and managed to continue as Spider-Man for the remaining two films of the Sony trilogy.

Marvel’s Spider-Man, however, looks as though he might not get another movie after Sony and Marvel have butted heads over the future of Spider-Man. Sony holds the licensing rights to Spider-Man and announced on Wednesday that they would no longer be partnering with Disney and Marvel Studios on the superhero’s movies, meaning Marvel’s and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man may no longer be a part of the MCU.

Although fans around the world remain optimistic, little is known as to what the future may hold for Spider-Man.